The Federal Government has approved N5bn for each state to enable them to procure food items for distribution to the poor in their respective states.
Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State disclosed this at the Presidential Villa shortly after the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting in Abuja.
Thursday’s development comes in the wake of the hike in the cost of food items, and petroleum owing to the removal of subsidy on the commodity.
According to him, the Federal Government also released five trucks of rice each to the 36 state governors.
Explaining further, Governor Zulum said the state governors are to procure 100,000 bags of rice, 40,000 bags of maize, and fertilizers.
He noted that 52 percent of the funds were given to the state governments as grants while 48% is loans.
Recall that on May 29, in his inaugural speech, President Bola Tinubu said the petrol subsidy regime was over.
“On fuel subsidy, unfortunately, the budget before I assumed office is that no provision is there for fuel subsidy. So, fuel subsidy is gone,” the president had said.
Following Tinubu’s comments, huge queues resurfaced at filling stations in some parts of Nigeria — a situation the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) blamed on panic buying.
On July 30, the federal government said it was working on measures to ease the effect of petrol subsidy removal on the masses.
In a nationwide broadcast on July 31, Tinubu said he “understands the hardship” Nigerians have gone through since the removal of the petrol subsidy.
Owing to the policy, organised labour embarked on a nationwide strike to reject what they described as the inability of the federal government to provide adequate palliatives for workers.
